India’s spacecraft Chandrayaan-3 lands on moon’s south pole

India’s spacecraft Chandrayaan-3 landed on Moon’s south pole on Wednesday.

Achieving the feat, India became the first country to land a spacecraft on the Moon’s south pole.

Chandrayaan-3, which means “Mooncraft” in Sanskrit, touched down shortly after 6 pm India time (1230 GMT) near the little-explored lunar south pole.

Chandrayaan-3 is expected to remain functional for two weeks, running a series of experiments including a spectrometer analysis of the mineral composition of the lunar surface following its landing.

“Landing on the south pole (of the moon) would actually allow India to explore if there is water ice on the moon. And this is very important for cumulative data and science on the geology of the moon,” said Carla Filotico, a partner and managing director at consultancy SpaceTec Partners.

The Indian space agency launched the rocket on July 14, blasting off from the country’s main spaceport in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.

The Chandrayaan-3 mission was followed by the past space crash, days after the Russian space agency aimed to land in the same region.

ISRO’s Chandrayaan-2 mission in 2019 successfully deployed an orbiter but its lander crashed.